here i was a young boy with a white mom, a black father, raised in indonesia and hawaii. i was beginning to sense how fitting in to the world might not be as simple as it might seem. and so to see this man, this senator, this powerful accomplished fern person who was not a central casting when it came to what you think a senator might look like at the time. the way he commanded the respect of an entire nation, i think it hinted to me what might be possible in my own life. this was a man who as a teen stepped up to serve his country even after his fellow japanese americans were declared enemy aliens. a man who believed in america even when the government didn't necessarily believe in him. that meant something to me. it gave me a powerful sense, one they couldn't put in to words, a powerful sense of hope. and as i watched those hearings listening to danny ask all the piercing questions night after night, i learned something else. i learned how or democracy was supposed to work. our government of and by and for the people. we had a system of government where nobody was above